Bruised
by TheDiiva
Summary: Danny accepts an offer from Vlad, and everything begins to unravel at the seems. They don't just send you to hell, they give you a tour of heaven first.


Theme: Free Day- Everything Changes

 **Bruised**

-o-oOo-o-

 _"Dark hearts don't break; they **bruise.** " _

_-Let Go, Hollywood Undead_

-o-oOo-o-

"And then the darn thing just went off, right in my _face_ —! Oh! Sorry, Vladdy!"

Vlad's eye twitched. He grumbled at the careless remark. _Too bad it didn't take off your face_ , he thought.

"It's quite alright," he bit out, only being tolerable because Maddie was actually sitting between him and Jack for once, on the couch. He was perched on the chair in their living room, legs crossed, deftly listening into the rabble falling from Jack's mouth.

"Anyway, we've almost got that trapper done, it just needs a few more tweaks," Jack said, and Vlad didn't have any idea what trap device he was talking about. He hadn't been paying attention. Jack's eyes lit up, "Hey, why don't you join us?! It'd be just like old times, us three working on something together! It'll be fun! Well, not for Maddie, she probably wouldn't take kindly to you telling her her math is wrong like you used to."

Vlad shook his head, "I'm not interested right now, sorry—"

 _ **BANG!**_

All three jumped. Their eyes locked onto the front door, which was slammed closed with enough force to shake the pictures hanging on the wall. Danny stalked into the living room, throwing his bag to the floor. Jack stared after him and Vlad rose a brow at him. It seems like things just got interesting. Danny completely ignored them in favor of stomping towards the kitchen. Maddie got up, fallowing him.

"Danny, you know better than to slam the door and to throw your things everywhere..." she scolded, but he seemed to ignore her. She frowned, looking him over. His hands were clenched so tightly he was trembling, "Danny, are you okay? You're shaking"

Vlad's voice fluttered overhead as he walked over, Jack fallowing, "I'm sure it's nothing, Maddie, after all, teenagers are supposed to be rebellious and ungrateful-"

"Vlad, shut the hell up and go away— _Permanently._ " Danny slammed his drink onto the counter. Vlad's amused smirk fell off his face, "I'm not in the mood for your crap right now."

Maddie gaped at him, "Danny! This isn't like you, what's happened?"

He shook his head, walking over and yanking the door to the fridge open, "It's nothing. I'm fine."

"I don't think you are-"

"I am," he interrupted, "It's no big deal. I shouldn't be so upset over it anyway, it wasn't even likely I would've won anyway. I should have expected it."

Maddie's brows knit together, placing her hand on her collarbone. Danny shuffled around the kitchen, grabbing several pieces of bread, a package of lunch meat and a bag of chips, all of which he stacked onto a paper plate. She tried to think about what he was talking about, but she couldn't think of anything. A quick glace back at Jack didn't help, he shrugged and nodded to Danny.

She turned back to him, "Won? What are you talking about?"

Danny gave her an incredulous look, "That contest that NASA was holding, the one where the winner would be able to go up to the space station! Remember? I sent in a thing for it? The winner was picked today, and I lost. I really wanted to win because you both know how much I love astronomy. I really wanted to go but I can't and I don't know why it upsets me so much because it was like a one in a billion chance and I didn't even have a shot and I should have expected this but I didn't," he rambled, the words falling off his tongue. He realized he was speaking too fast and he stopped. He watched their faces go from realization to sadness and he turned away. He didn't want to deal with their pity right now.

"I'm sorry, I'll clean up my stuff. It's no big deal, I'm fine. I have homework, so, excuse me..." he said, grabbing his plate and slipping around them. He scooped up his battered bag, sprinted up the stairs two at a time.

Maddie jogged after him, "Danny..."

Vlad silently begged for her to come back in his mind as he was left alone with Jack. The silence pressed in on the two men, and Vlad was uncomfortable with it. He wondered across the living room, towards the foot of the stairs, dragging his feet a little. His arms clasped behind his back as he tried not to look at any of the pictures—he didn't need to see their smiling, happy faces at the moment. The clock on the TV stand read 5:34 and it seemed to take forever for the minute to flip. Jack looked up the stairs, his lips turns down in a sad frown, "I've never seen him so bothered like that before..."

Vlad pressed his tongue against his teeth, humming, "A contest?"

Jack nodded, looking at him, "Yeah, he talked about it a lot for weeks a while ago. He literally got on his knees and begged when he asked if he could apply. He didn't mention it in a while, thought, so I thought that it was over. Guess it is now."

Vlad nodded slowly. He could hear Maddie's voice drifting down the stairs, but couldn't understand what she was saying. Winning the contest would have been like the jackpot for Daniel, he understood that perfectly well. Space was to Danny what Danny was the Vlad, the ultimate victory; the grand prize. If Daniel's small meltdown was any insight into how much he was upset, then he'd misgudged just how much value the teen put into his interests.

He didn't take his eyes off the stairs, "...He was really looking forward to it, wasn't he?"

"More than I think any of us realize."

Vlad nodded, looking up the stairs.

After a while, Maddie came back down the stairs. The air of defeat around her was thick. She stopped on the last stair, leaning on the railing, "Danny won't let me in, he won't talk to me. He just keeps saying that he wants to work on his work."

"A coping mechanism, he's burying himself into something to distract him from his hurt," Vlad stated, and Maddie nodded. She stared at the floor, deep in thought over what she could do. Vlad shoved his hands into his pockets, "May I see if I can talk to him?"

Maddie looked up, biting her lip, "I don't think that's a good idea..."

Jack shrugged, "Couldn't hurt to try, worst he'd do is yell at you some more."

"I don't think you'll have any better luck than I did," Maddie muttered, but motioned upstairs anyway.

Vlad nodded at the silent display of defeat, and he climbed the stairs. He stopped before the painted white door, a large banner spread across it labeling it as the boy's room. That amused him greatly, nearly as much as the random paper cutouts also decorating it. He raised his hand and rapped his knuckles against the wood. He received no answer.

He knocked again, "Daniel?"

"Go away, Vlad!" Danny screamed from inside, his voice muffled, "I'm not in the mood to deal with you!"

Vlad ignored the hostile response, "Daniel, trying to be apathetic towards this is not going to help you."

"Go away, you don't understand what I'm feeling!"

"Oh yes, knowing that something you want exists yet being unable to actually _**have**_ it. I can't _possibly_ fathom what that feels like."

Danny growled, "Don't patronize me."

Vlad snorted, leaning on the door frame, "I stand by what I said before, apathy will only make this worse."

"I don't care, now leave!" Something heavy slammed against the door, making it rattle. Vlad jolted a little, snarling at the poster.

"Okay, you little rat, do you want to go to space or not?" he hissed

Another thing hit the door, "Don't mock me!"

"I'm not, it was a serious question. Do you want to go or not?" Vlad snapped. He got no response. He rapped his knuckles on the door again, "Daniel? Daniel, it's in my—Hey!"

Intangible arms shot out of the wood and an ectoblast embedded itself into his gut. He shot back into the wall on the other side of the hall, his skull cracking against the drywall. He slunk down, his legs folding under him and he snarled, gritting his teeth. Stars danced across his vision and the back of his head began to throb. He raised his eyes, irises burning red as he glared at the door. His nails dug into the paint, and he let out a deep, low growl as he pushed himself up. Green smoke rose from the soldering holes in his suit's dark fabric and he brushed over them with his hand. He glared one last time at the door before turning and heading back downstairs. Jack and Maddie gave him worried looks. Maddie opened her mouth to, but he shrugged the incoming questions off.

"He pushed me out. I had no luck. I think I'm going to take my leave, it's getting late in the evening anyway. I hope Daniel feels better soon, it breaks my heart to see him so upset." Vlad supplied. They nodded, and muttered a few goodbyes.

The front door closed behind him and he stepped down the front stairs, pulling his phone from the inside breast pocket of his suit. He fished his keys from his belt loops, incredibly thankful he hadn't slammed into them when he'd hit the wall. His thumbnail jammed into the unlock button on his key fob, the airbrushed sunset orange Saleen S7 Twin Turbo parked at the curb chirping in response. Several key presses later, Vlad held his phone to the ear.

"Hailey, I have a bizarre request, and you're going to think I've lost my mind..."

-o-oOo-o-

Maddie wiped her hands clean of meatloaf batter, the loud knocking at the door echoing in the unusually quiet house. She called that she coming, half jogging the final few feet to the door. She flipped the lock and opened the door. Vlad shoved his hands into his pockets, nodding at her. She pursed her lips, still not quite sure what to think of him. She held her hand out to her home and stepped aside. He gave a halfhearted thanks before turning back to her again.

"Hello, Madeline, is Daniel here?" he questioned. His eyes trailed over the living room.

She nodded, though the amount of times Vlad had come over asking specifically for Danny was starting to alarm her. Five times in the current month alone was far too many. His gaze rested on her her, and he tilted his head, waiting for her to exaggerate. She sighed through her nose, hanging her forearm over the stairs railing, "Yeah, but he's still pretty upset about you-know-what, so I don't think it's best you're here."

"I just wanted to ask him a question, but seeing as he's irritable, perhaps it would be best if you ask him," Vlad said, "I'd like to know if he'd like to go up to my private space station."

Maddie blinked, "You have a space station?"

"I do now."

The way he said it so casually shut her up of any other questions. She just rolled with it. She supposed when you had so much money, there wasn't anything you _couldn't_ have—save for a community-owned sports team, she thought a little smugly. A far cry from the frugal penny-pincher she'd known him to be in college. Or perhaps he was more frugal than how he was in college and that was his secret to his fortune, she didn't really know. She gestured for him to fallow and she climbed the stairs. Vlad's shoes clicked on the steps behind her. She didn't stop at Danny's door, instead twisting and knob and letting herself in. Vlad stopped at the frame, crossing his arms as he leaned against it. Maddie continued over to Danny's prone form on the bed, his laptop unsuccessfully 'hidden' under his pillow; if you called hap hazardously shoving it there hiding. Her fingers pressed lightly into the teen's shoulders, and she leaned over him.

She called out gently, "Danny? Vlad wants to know if you want to go up to his private space station. I know it wouldn't be the same as the international one you wanted, but it's still kind of what you wanted?"

The muscles of Danny's back tensed under the baggy shirt. Maddie rubbed oblong circles over his spine, though Vlad hadn't any idea why. His first guess would be an injury he was trying to hide, though he couldn't rule out that it was the mention of him that caused it. Actually yes, he definitely thought that was it. After a while, Danny raised his head from the well used pillow, turning to look at his mother.

"No, I want nothing to do with him right now. And he's prolly just offering because he pities me," he bit out, muttering the last part. Maddie nodded and stood. Vlad rubbed the inside of his teeth with his tongue.

"You can take your friends, if you would like. You could do anything you wanted, stay up there as long as you want, both within reason, whatever. It's your choice," he offered, crossing his legs at the ankle. Really, the first one didn't need to be said, there was a very low chance that Daniel _wouldn't_ take his friends along if he could. They were pretty much attached at the hip, the three of them.

Daniel snarled, pushing himself up, "Why in the heck do you even care?"

"I don't like to see you so upset, especially over something you take so close to heart," Vlad admitted, not skipping a beat, "I know that contest meant something to you, but I can't get you onto the International station—I tried—so I'm offering the next best thing."

Daniel growled, his fingers digging into the blankets bunched around his waist. His eyes flashed green at Vlad, but didn't cease to stop glowing even in the presence of his mother. He glared, but Vlad waited patiently, unfazed by the gaze. Maddie sat down on the edge of the bed, looking between the two.

Finally, she broke the silence, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Danny, at least give it some thought?"

Vlad shrugged, "It's really not, so long as I'm still around."

"Are there gonna be any tricks?" Danny asked suddenly.

"No, no tricks."

"Any plots?"

"No plots."

Danny's eyes narrowed, "Any 'issues' and 'stuff'?"

"No issues or incidents." Vlad waved a hand, nonchalant.

"...You promise?"

Vlad blinked, but went with it anyway, nodding, "I promise."

Danny nodded back, "Alright. I want to go up for a week." Maddie looked at him, her jaw slack. Vlad simply pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Very well, you should start packing while I call the hanger," he said, tapping a few keys as he spoke, "We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."

Danny froze, "Wait, what?"

"Absolutely not, he's got school!" Maddie snapped.

Vlad shrugged, "He can do his makeup work while he's up there, so long as he's got it by this evening. Besides, its close to the end of the year anyway."

"Thats..." she opened her mouth to argue, but found no real reason why that wouldn't work. Danny's eyes locked onto her, his teeth nibbling on his bottom lip. She didn't want to ruin this for him again, not after they'd just reached a consensus. She gave in, and nodded, "Alright, tomorrow it is then."

"Wonderful!" Vlad pushed himself off the frame, his eyes glued to his phone. He looked up a little, as if having a thought, and turned back to Danny.

"Are Samantha and Tucker joining you?" he asked.

Danny shrugged, "I don't know, I'll have to give them a call and then their parents are gonna have to argue and stuff."

Vlad nodded, returning to his phone, "If either set of parents wants the parameters of either machine, let me know, I can send them over immediately."

-o-oOo-o-

Morning came in the form of a phone alarm going off on the coffee table. Vlad grumbled, fighting to get off the arm he was laying on. He rolled, nearly falling off the couch with a sharp swear. His fingers danced on the screen, unlocking the device and shutting the noise up before he went to work untangling himself from the blanket cocoon around his legs. Several minutes and one pastry curse at the fact that he forgot that intangibility was a thing later, he was free and slinking quietly up the stairs. They creaked underneath, worn from years of heavy feet and stomping children. He phased into Daniel's room, not even bothering to turn invisible beforehand—no one else was going to be up yet and the bathroom was on the other side of the house. He snorted at the sight he was greeted with. Daniel was sprawled out as much as he could have been, arms hanging off the sides and his legs barely covered by the blue sheets. Vlad stepped beside the bed, looking down at the other.

"Daniel," he called, firm yet soft enough to not disturb Jasmine in the next room over, "Daniel, wake up."

Danny shivered, a sliver of blue mist slipping from his drooling lips, "Gnnnrrr...Go 'way, Box G'ost."

"I take offense to that, Daniel," Vlad grumbled, glaring at the teen. He reached out and gently shook his shoulder, "Come on, get up."

Danny's hand swung so fast Vlad didn't even see it before it smacked him. He stumbled, catching himself on the nightstand as he held his stinging cheek. He grit his teeth, thankful that it hadn't been a fist, at least. He didn't need any black eyes today. Danny shifted, turning onto his side and burying his head deeper into the pillow. Vlad stood up straight again, huffing.

"Fine. We'll do it this way," he muttered.

He shoved his hands onto the mattress, his hands tingling with a distant pins and needle kind of numbness. They faded into a slight transparency, tinting blue. The state of intangibility spread throughout the bed. Air replaced solid material under Danny, and he fell.

" _AHHH!_ " his cry was cut off when he thumped onto the floor, his body jolting awake. Burning green eyes locked on Vlad, his chest heaving from the scare, "The hell, Vlad?!"

"Good, you're awake," Vlad chirped.

Danny rolled out form under his intangible bed, and it resolidified as Vlad removed his hands from it. Danny sat back o his heels, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye, "What are you doing in my house at..." he squinted towards the clock on his nightstand, "4 O'clock?! In the morning?! Why so early?!"

Vlad shrugged, "I stayed the night last night, I'll have you know. It was a waste of time for me to leave then to come back this early, after all. Get up, we need to get moving. We've got a lot of things we need to do in a very short amount of time."

"It's 4 In the morning, I'm not getting up this early, I'm freakin tired as hell!" Danny protested, staring after Vlad as the older man stalked towards the door.

"I suggested you go to sleep early last night, but you ignored me." Vlad gave him a pointed look, one that read 'I told you so' and Danny bit his tongue. Vlad motioned towards the dresser, "Go get a shower, you'll have plenty of time to sleep again later."

Danny grumbled and complained the entire time he got up and dug out clean clothes. Vlad watched for a bit, amused, before slipping out of the room to give Daniel his privacy. He sat at the top of the stairs, making about a dozen last minute phone calls. He reassessed that everything for the trip was ready, asking for last minute maintenance double checks be performed before he got there. He nearly forgot to call his secretary to ask her to take care of Maddie while he was away, and his thumb tapped out her familiar number.

It rang once, twice, three times before she finally picked up, her voice sharp, "You do realize that I do need sleep, right? I can't run on five hours for several days like you can."

"My apologies, Hailey, if I would have remembered to call yesterday I would have," he replied, keeping his voice low, "Would you have any qualms with stopping by my manor a few times while I'm on leave? I own a cat and I don't have anyone else to ask so last-minute."

"Sure, I'll just go ahead and rename myself Vlad Masters since I'm basically living your life for a week," she mused, sarcastic. He opened his mouth to reply, but she continued, "Oh, what am I saying, you never do your paperwork to begin with, so I guess I'm not."

He snorted, "Haha, very funny. So will you do it?"

She chuckled, "Yes, I'll stop by twice every day. I assume that's how often you feed it?"

"Indeed. Thank you, Hailey." She hummed in response and he lowered his voice even further, "The passcode for the gate is DanielMasters, and the code for the security system is 21490."

He heard the light scratching of a pen over paper, and he made a mental note to change both codes when he got back home. It wasn't that he didn't trust his secretary, it was that he preferred to be safe than sorry most times. He heard the phone shift on her shoulder as she put her hand back on it

"Speaking of Daniel...?" she trailed off, the questioning tone hanging in the air.

His fingers tensed on the phone, and he bit out the words through his teeth, "Not now, if you would please."

"Very well," she relented, her tone going from personal back to professional in the flip of a coin, though Vlad knew from experience that she was still very curious about the answer. Her ability to be curious yet to also put it aside was one of the many things he admired in her, "Enjoy your trip."

He muttered his thanks and hung up the call. A door clicked softly shut and he head Danny's steps behind him. Vlad pushed himself off the step, descending them with Daniel behind him.

"You know, Vlad, just because I've accepted your offer doesn't mean I trust you," Danny said at the bottom, picking up his packed bag that were set by the door the previous night.

Vlad just chuckled, earning a toxic green glare.

The front door clicked shut and Danny locked it, sprinting after Vlad. They walked around the corner to where a small, black limo was parked beside the house. Danny scoffed at the transportation. He walked over and got inside, a suited man he assumed as the driver held the door open for him. Vlad took his bag, the trunk popping open for him to place it inside. The inside was lined with seats on both sides, a silver crisscross pattern designing the soft black velvet. Danny scooted down to the seat he wanted, beside a window. He propped his chin up on his palm, the limo shuddering a little when the trunk was slammed. It smelled like a new car, with a hint of lemon for some reason. Vlad said a few words to the suited chauffeur before sliding into the back, on the opposite side of Danny. The vehicle twitched again as a muffled door clicked shut, the engine purring to life shortly after.

The floor vibrated under Danny's body, the feeling lulling his mind into drowsiness again. He stared out the window, the buildings and streets passing outside without him really seeing them. The dark sky taunted him, the slight chill in the air comforting his slow core. He didn't know he'd closed his eyes and drifted off until the door slammed loudly, jolting him awake. He blinked, groggy, as he searched the dark compartment of the vehicle. His entire arm was arm from being his makeshift pillow and he shook his hand. He caught side of someone else sliding down to sit beside him, the irritable groan telling him it was Sam. He muttered a slurred hello, and she turned, glaring at him.

"Fuckin' Vlad Fruitloop Masters waking up my parents this early in the morning to tell 'em to go get me," She mumbled, "A little warning would've been nice, y'know."

Danny snorted, smirking, "Would've been nice for me too, I didn't know we would be leaving so early. He phased the bed out form under me to wake me up."

She frowned, "Try having 'Sama'tha, why is the mayor here for you at this hour" being screamed at you via my mother."

"Harsh." Danny nodded slowly, pressing his forehead to the back of the seat, his arm stretched out behind Sam. He heard her shift and felt her head fall back onto his arm, her hair tickling it. He stared at the dark shapes on the luxurious seat.

"Should I call Tuck? Give him any warnin'?" he muttered. He felt Sam shake her head.

"Nah, leave him get a rude awakenin' to, no fair if all three of us don't."

He snickered, falling silent when the doors slammed closed again. Several hushed pastry curses drifted down to their ears, entwined with a soft rant about the Mansons. A wide smile split Danny's face and he heard the sharp broken giggles as Sam tried to muffle her laughter. The wonderful feeling of the engine returned, drumming against Danny's forehead into his chest and he reveled in it, allowing sleep to envelope him again. He was distantly aware of the limo stopping for Tucker, and of hearing Sam mumble a greeting to their third amiko. Besides that, time was lost to him in the form of sweet, sweet rest.

-o-oOo-o-

Getting three sleepy teenagers out of a limo and into a jet proved incredibly difficult for Vlad.

They grumbled and complained and whined, and it ate away at nearly all of his patience. He squashed the temptation to light fires under their asses to wake them up and get them moving quicker. Doing so would not only anger all three of them, Daniel most of all, but he would most likely be slammed with child endangerment charges if they went to their parents about it. He didn't need that, so he settled for venting his frustrations under his breath in Russian. They walked across the tarmac of Amity Park's smaller airport, loud wide yawns sounding every few minutes. A large sleek jet a few feet away, and he navigated them towards it. Ivory colored it's top, black on the underside, large maroon script spelling out "Masters" down the side. The engine of the jet was already running, the boarding stairs already pulled down. Vlad ushered the three up into the plane, the driver of the limo gathering the bags from the trunk and climbing into a different part of the craft. The reaction of the teens to being on a million dollar jet was lackluster, save for the stares of Tucker and the rolled eyes of Daniel. Samantha seemed unfazed, as if flying on this kind of plane was normal for her. The jet was prepped and taking off in minutes, the teens staying away just long enough to get airborne. Samantha stared at her phone, occasionally tapping something with her thumb while Daniel slunk into a seat, laying down. Tucker seemed intent to try to poke his nose into anything he could, before he too passed out on a chair.

Vlad leaned against the side of the compartment, staring out the window at the miles falling away underneath them. After awhile, soft snores drew his attention back to the trio, all three sleeping again. Danny's arm hung off the side of the seat, his knuckles on the carpeted floor. Tuckers arms were folder under his head, and he somehow managed to curl into a ball, his barrette over his face. Samantha was still sitting up, her legs crossed and her phone still in her hand. He turned away, eyes downcast, and he couldn't help but compare them all to his own former group. It was nearly a repeat scenario. He sighed, his secretary's questions in his head. His thoughts only drew yet more similarities. He could only hope that their friendship wouldn't break apart like his had. But the world was cruel, and loved to tear good things apart.

Hope meant nothing, it did nothing, as he'd learned a long time ago. But for Daniel's sake, he hoped.

-o-oOo-o-

Things were moving, shaking, around him and Danny groaned. He didn't want to be woken up again. He felt someone touch his hand and shake it. He pulled it away to try to stop them, but they moved to their wrist, shaking a little more vigorously.

"Daniel, Samantha, Tucker; wake up. We need to get off the jet." Danny swatted towards the voice, two other whines joining his. He heard Vlad swore and considered it a small victory. A pressure on his arm disappeared, leaving a lingering warmness that tingled in the cold air, and something shifted next to him.

"Oh, good, Samantha has her senses about her. Thank you."

Slurred mumbles drifted into the air, "St'p callin' me S'mantha, 's Sam."

Vlad scoffed, and the touches to his arm returned, "Daniel, Tucker. Get up. I'm not saying it again, so this is your last chance."

Danny ignored him, trying to block out his voice. He was so very comfy.

He felt a hand press on his chest, and every never in his body was set aflame with an intense heat. He yelped, jerking back and trying to get away from it. His core shrank away from the heat, pulling in on itself into a little ball inside his chest, small and painfully tight. His skin tingled and everything was much too hot. He heard Tucker cry out as he fell into something, the dark world spinning as he fell off the seat. Stars danced in his vision, Tucker groaning out in pain under his legs. Sam yelled, her voice amplified by the small space. When Danny's vision cleared, Vlad was looking down at him, his arms crossed.

"The hell was that for?!" Danny demanded, trying to get his breath back after his lungs had felt like he'd inhaled fire.

Vlad shrugged, "You weren't getting up. I fixed that."

"Gee, thanks for the third degree burns," Danny spit, carefully navigating off his best friend. They both helped each other up, sliding out of the jet and down the stairs with Sam. The cold outside air was like heaven to Danny, and he breathed in deeply.

Vlad crawled out after them, giving Danny a pointed glare, "I didn't burn you, I would never be so careless with my powers."

Danny scoffed, crossing his arms. Sam pulled her knit sweater jacket tighter around herself, her hair tangling in the soft breeze. It was definitely a few hours later, they realized, due tot he lightened sky. They Fallowed flad over to where their bags had been pulled off the jet, Sam looking around at the vast empty area.

"Oh my god...!" Her jaw fell open as she froze, and the other two looked at her confused before fallowing her line of sight. Both stopped dead, gaping.

The massive burgundy space shuttle was nearly all wing, perfectly curved contours and sleek, faceted metal faces forming crisp edges. It sat low to the ground, the wide, straight wings tilted backwards with no separate body segment to be seen, likening it to a stealth aircraft. The wings ran right up to the rounded point of the nose, but had a massive triangle cut from the rear, where the propulsion system was located. Silver stripes traced the front edge on both top and bottom of each wing, as well as the belly. From the center of the top, long tilted silver dorsal fins steadily grew longer as the trailed from nose to tail, pointing outwards towards the wing tips. Bright orange tanks were attached to top of the craft, spanning its entire width. The entire thing glistened in the early morning sunlight, positively shining. The Vladco company name and logo branded the rightmost dorsal, a strange name etched in silver near the nose.

"It's gorgeous..." Sam muttered, and Danny found himself agreeing.

Vlad circled around back of them, "Indeed, she is. She was designed to be."

"What's her name?" Sam turned to him, and the other two sets of eyes fallowed.

Vlad took the bags one by one and handed them to their respective owner, "The Prizrak," he answered.

Sam nodded, looking back at the ship. Her eyes fell on the silver name, "Sounds Russian."

"That's because it is," Vlad said, finally picking up his own bag and throwing it over his shoulder. Danny noticed, and stared at it. Vlad tilted his head at the young halfa, waiting for the incoming complaints.

"...Why do you have a bag too?" Danny asked, shifting his eyes to stare at Vlad from under his bangs.

"Did you honestly expect me to send three teenagers up onto multi-billion dollar space structures _alone?_ For an _entire week_? I honestly don't trust you three and your predilection for causing trouble enough to do that," he stated matter-of-factly, slamming the trunk closed, "So yes, I'm coming along."

Danny rolled his eyes, muttering, "Wonderful..."

Vlad glared at him, urging the three teenagers towards the awaiting vehicle, "Don't act like that. Come on."

-o-oOo-o-

The Prizrak slowly slid over the massive metal structure floating in micro gravity several thousand miles above the earth. The hatches lined up, the two locking together with thick metallic thunks. The pressure seals activated, large arms reaching from the station up to grab the shuttle and further secure it in place. Danny stared at the massive solar panels lining the station out of the window. The hatch at the bottom of the Prizrak clicked, and Vlad knelt beside it, pulling it open. All three teens tensed, but the joining seals held. Vlad motioned to the hatch.

"After you," he said. Danny rolled his eyes and floated over to the entrance.

He held his hands out to his friends, helping them slowly navigate their way down into the station. They struggled to find their center of balance, but they eventually made it down. He fallowed with ease, Vlad fallowing him. The older halfa paused to lock the hatch while Danny explored what would be his temporary home for the week. Out of the small circular room the hatch dropped them into was a large, spacious room with an arched ceiling. Poles and beams ran across the dark airbrushed metal walls like weird ladders, wires that were bolted to the walls running all over the place. Neon lights lining the ceiling lit the room, several colored lights from various machines reflecting off the metal. Large machines and devices like some of the walls, their loose parts tied down. Five other exits lead out of the oval area. He felt a hand on his ankle, and turned to see Sam pulling herself up to his side via the walls. Tucker fallowed on his other side.

"This is really weird," she stated, pushing her skirt down as momentum tried to slowly lift it up her abdomen, "Glad I packed shorts."

"Microgravity at it's finest." Danny flashed a smile and pushed himself further into the room.

"Before you all go running off to do god knows what to my property, listen up." Vlad called coming up behind them. They turned their attention to him, and he waved a hand around the room, "This is, obviously, the main area, the center of the station. The door on the far end is the engine and control rooms, of which none of you are allowed in."

He gestured towards the various offshoots, "Sleeping is off to the right, first entrance, while food and other necessities is on the left, first entrance. My lab is down the left rear, _please_ don't mess with anything in there." He gave the teens a burning glare, "Don't _break_ anything, or your asses will be grass."

Danny raised a brow, "Oh yeah, because I _totally_ wanna trash the only things keeping my friends alive in the horrible vacuum of nothingness."

Vlad narrowed his eyes, "I mean it, Daniel. Just because I'm doing this for _you_ doesn't mean that you have the freedom to trash anything," he growled.

Danny sighed, then nodded. Satisfied, Vlad turned and left the room. Danny rolled his eyes and ventured further inside. The lack of a gravitational force as default was kind of odd, but it didn't really bother him. His core quelled any kind of vertigo he thought he'd get, since he thought it would be different than floating and flying as a ghost. It wasn't, it was nearly the exact same sensation. The only difference was that he had to move his body a little more physically to move than when flying, whereas his ghost abilities would help with that.

"Dude, how are you moving so easily?!" Tucker called out, indignant. Danny turned and blinked at them.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I have no idea how to control my body, It's like I'm going every which way."

Danny flash a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head, "Half ghost thing. Floating and flying or microgravity; its the same feeling."

Sam tried again to float freely, but lost control and wobbled, "Yeah, well, teach us, please?"

-o-oOo-o-

"Okay, watch this..."

Vlad floated into the room, his hand circling around one of the many support bars. Danny was sitting with a small container of water and a long piece of small metal. Sam and tucker watched, interested but amused, as Danny rubbed the metal with a piece of paper. He held it horizontally, grabbing the container of water. A thin straw stuck out of is and he removed it, a tiny bubble of water on the end. He stuck the dry end in his mouth and light blew, sending the droplets towards the metal. Sam's eyebrows furrowed deeper, and her mouth fell open when the little droplets began to orbit the metal in an oblong swirling figure eight formation. Danny gathered some more water and did it again, and upwards of a dozen tiny little droplets wove around the metal like little moons. They got faster as they got closer to the rod before finally sticking to it.

"That's so weird..." Sam muttered, leaning a little closer.

"You can also blow pure water bubbles up here if your really careful, no soap or bubble solution needed," Danny replied, making a small bubble of water in the weightless area in front of him. He poked the straw into it and slowly blew into it. The bubble expanded and undulated across the surface.

" _Dude_ , I didn't even know that was possible!" Tucker exclaimed, "What happens if it pops?"

Danny hummed then gave a quick puff of air. The bubble burst, most of the water remaining connected like disfigured floppy balloon animals. It sloshed in the air, eventually settling back down into a sphere. Sam caught one of the bubbles that had shot off in her hand, using it to moisturize them.

"It's better with actually balloons, but basically the same," Danny stated, shrugging.

"Still, that was pretty cool!" Tucker said excitedly, "We should try that salt thing! And isn't it true that fire can't burn up here?"

"Actually, it can! It just acts weird," Danny said, "like it's more of a bubble and burns at lower temperatures and sometimes it combusts but doesn't do anything, and like no one can figure out why. Sam you wouldn't happen to have any matches on you, would you?"

Sam nodded, reaching into the pocket of her plaid skirt. Danny looked surprised to see that she actually did and Tucker stifled a laugh. Vlad rose an eyebrow, but didn't question it. He'd met women who hid stranger things in stranger places over the years, including Hailey. The trio went quiet for a moment, and he chose it as his opportunity to speak up.

"What are you even doing?" he called, drawing all three sets of eyes. Sam seemed to send him a glare that dared him to say anything.

Danny shrugged, replying, "Neat science tricks I've always wanted to do. They're the coolest."

Vlad crossed his arms, leaning his shoulder against the side of the room, "I bet I can show you something cooler."

Danny looked up towards Vlad from under his hair, "Bring it, fruitloop, I don't think you can."

Vlad smirked, and just reached out an arm, pressing a button near the temperature control panel for the room. Daniel's eyes went from confusion to terror in seconds flat when the station shuddered, the sound of metal scraping on metal and pistons hissings seeping through the walls. In seconds he was dashing for the button, but Vlad positioned himself over it, blocking the teen's scrambling hands. The other two were tensed, looking around and waiting for something to happen. They weren't disappointed as the ceiling jerked and began to part. Daniel swung around, his eyes glowing green and wide as he stared at it before he dug his fingers into Vlad's dress shirt

"What are you doing?!" he snapped, yanking on the soft silk, "You said there wasn't going to be any—!"

"Daniel, calm down. Look. Nothing's happening; no one's dying." Vlad replied smoothly. The teen snarled at him, his eyes searching Vlad's face. He turned back towards the ceiling, watching it with worry.

The thick metal panels that had looked to be the ceiling slid off to the side, pulled by massive spidery arms on the outside of the station. In their place, a massive plane of crystal clear glass, revealing the great wide void of the cosmos. The entire metal structure hummed and vibrated around them all from the movement before there was the sound of releasing gas and it all stopped. Danny stared at the glass, not really seeing anything beyond it for a moment as he waited with a feeling of dread in his gut for it to shatter. Such a large piece of glass couldn't resist the pressure of space, it wasn't strong enough, not thick enough—but it held. No dents, no cracks, no shattering and imminent death. He blinked at it, and his fingers fell limp from their grip on Vlad's shirt as he finally truly _saw_ what was revealed.

" _Oh my god._ "

Artistic renditions and telescope pictures were nothing compared to the real thing. The sky was the most vibrant color he'd ever seen, a watercolor wash of blacks and blues, millions upon millions of stars freckling it. There were more stars than he'd ever seen before in his life. Not with a telescope, not from flying as high as he could, never. There were so many, the sky looked like it had the texture of granite, like a huge lense made of the rarest goergeous gemstone. Some areas even looked dark purple and indigo, lighter clouded areas revealing galaxies. He saw several planets and a few stars he recognized, and they all slowly creep along. The sky felt alive, like it breathed, it was so _real_. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and he couldn't stop staring.

"Wow..." the whisper slipped out of his mouth, so quiet it could have just been a breath.

Vlad floated out from behind Danny, a smug grin on his lips, "Have I won?"

Danny didn't answer. His eyes remained glued to the sky, shifting rapidly as he tried to drink in ever single inch. Sam noticed, and tore her own gaze from the sight.

"Danny?" She floated over to his side, poking him in the arm, "I think you have, since he's pretty much gone into Space-Overload mode." She waved her hand in front of his face.

Danny jumped when the fingers entered his vision, "Huh? What?"

Tucker raised his arm pointing, "Hey look! Is that the big dipper?! It's so huge!"

Danny twisted his head, recognition flashing across his face, "Yeah, it is! And it you look over here, there's Draco, Leo, and...I think that's Lynx? Kinda? It's really faint and tiny, but it's totally there too!"

"Lynx?" Sam's brows knot and she turned towards Danny. He pointed up at a pattern of stars. Vlad didn't recognize them, and he was just as confused as Sam was.

"A constellation defined in like the 17th century, to fill the open gap between the constellations Ursa Major, which is what the Big Dipper's apart of, and Auriga. It was supposedly named Lynx because of its faintness: only the 'lynx-eyed', or those who could see pretty good, would be able to recognize it," Danny explained.

Sam chuckled, "Danny's space nerdieness is showing."

"I'm not a nerd!" Danny defended, offended, "I just really like space!"

Sam ignored him, "You are too a nerd."

Danny threw up his hands, exasperated but clearly giving up the loosing argument. The goth burst out laughing and Danny stuck his tongue out at her.

-o-oOo-o-

Several hours later, Vlad returned to the main center. He was surprised to find Danny still up, floating cross legged and staring up at the stars shining overhead. He floated over, his arms crossed. Danny turned towards him a fraction, but turned his attention back to the sky. Vlad stopped next to the boy, casting his eyes up to the sight above as well. He didn't think Danny had ever seen the sky like this before, given how light polluted Amity was. Hell, Vlad himself hadn't ever seen it this clearly before either, despite living in an area away from bright lights. The sky gazed back, proudly displaying it's awe inspiring beauty. He knew that some of the bright dots were planets, though he wouldn't have been able to point them out—he knew a little about astrology but not that much. Daniel probably could, he was certain of that. The boy had pointed out the zodiac constellations easily. They floated in silence, their eyes scanning the celestial paint before them. While Vlad reveled in Danny's company, he knew the other wouldn't say the same of him. Eventually, the silence grew a tad too uncomfortable, and he shifted his gaze to the teen.

"So, are you still upset about the contest?" he asked. Danny startled, having forgotten he was there.

"Yeah, I still kinda am," Danny replied, shrugging, "but I couldn't have had an experience like this on the space station, so that's something. I never thought I'd ever get to see the universe like this."

Vlad couldn't help the way the corner of his mouth twitched up and he turned away so Daniel wouldn't see it. That was probably as close to a 'thanks' as he was going to get. He'd take what he could get.

He nodded towards the wall of the station, "Ghosts are impervious to the extreme environment of space, if you wanted to go flying. I would suggest you tie a cable to yourself, though. Wouldn't do to loose you up here."

Danny looked to the wall. He seemed to hesitate before shaking his head. He looked back up, "Nah, maybe later. I just wanna relax and enjoy the view right now."

Vlad nodded, quiet. He felt his hair brush the back of his neck as it floated in weird tangles. He traced patterns in the stars with his eyes. Danny shifted and leaned back, balancing a laid back pose midair. The minutes passed in silence, the world revolving miles beneath them and the universe breathing in front. He caught sight of something, and a thought struck him.

"You know some pretty obscure constellations," he spoke up.

Danny shrugged, "Yeah, I like to look up new ones, but most of them I can never see. The Zodiac and a few other ones are the only ones I know where they are by memory."

Vlad nodded. "Have you ever heard of the Heavenly Waters or Cosmic Waters constellation family?

Danny looked at him, his brows knit. He thought for a moment before replying, "No, never heard of it. What are they?"

"A small constellation family that can go by either name," Vlad stated. He raised his arm and pointed to several stars. Danny fallowed the directions of his finger, the crease between his eyebrows deepening, "Eridanus. It's the sixth largest modern constellation. Achernar's it's brightest star."

"What's the name mean, it sounds Latin-ish," Danny asked, fallowing the winding trail of starts. He wondered how Vlad knew about constellations he hadn't even heard of before, but pushed the thoughts away.

Vlad chuckled, "It _is_ Latin, Its the Latin name of the Po River. It's a river in northern Italy."

Danny nodded, enraptured and curious, "Is there any mythology attached to it?"

"Well, in one theory, the constellation takes its name from the Babylonian constellation known as the Star of Eridu. Eridu was supposedly an ancient city in the extreme south of Babylonia; Located in the marshy regions, it was held sacred to the god Enki-Ea who ruled the cosmic domain of the Abyss—a mythical fresh-water reservoir below the Earth's surface," Vlad explained, "But as far as mythology goes, Delphinius and Colmba are better."

"What are those?"

"Delphinius, the dolphin, and Columba, the dove." Vlad pointed out two other sets of stars, fairly tiny compared to Eridanus, "One of Delphinius' stories tells of the Greek poet Arion of Lesbos who was saved by a dolphin. He was a court musician at the palace of Periander, ruler of Corinth. Arion had amassed a fortune during his travels to Sicily and Italy. On his way home, his wealth caused the crew of his ship to conspire against him. Threatened with death, Arion asked to be granted a last wish which the crew granted: he wanted to sing a dirge. He did, and while doing so, flung himself into the sea. There, he was rescued by a dolphin which had been charmed by Arion's music. The dolphin carried Arion to the coast of Greece and left."

Danny blinked, then snorted, "...Wow, kinda weird, like, 'Hey I just saved your life, kay, bye!'"

Vlad chuckled, "Columba is named after the dove in the story of Noah's Ark. In the myth, Noah's dove is sent from the Ark to see if there is any dry land left after the Great Flood. The bird returns holding an olive branch in its beak, signaling that the flood is receding. The dove was said to be immortalized in the sky to forever be able to watch over the Earth in times of disaster. Some believe that when the constellation can be seen clearly, its a sign of good fortune to come."

"Are those the only ones in that family?" Danny asked, looking over the tiny little dove pattern of dots.

Vlad's brows rose towards his hairline, "Not at all. There are a few others. There's Equuleus, Piscis Austrinus, Pyxis, Carina, Puppis, and Vela. The last three used to make up the Argo Navis, the ship, before they were split. I personally prefer to keep them combined."

Danny nodded, "Will we be able to see any of those while we're up here?"

"We should. Or at least there's a very good chance of it," Vlad replied, tilting his head, "why?"

"I'd like to see as many of them as I can, they sound neat," Danny answered, shrugging lazily. Vlad chuckled lightly, returning his gaze to the stars at he let the conversation die. He assumed that Daniel was done talking to him now, given that there wasn't really anything else to say. The new silence wasn't as uncomfortable as the first, so he was content to share it.

"Why are you being nice to me, recently?" Daniel asked suddenly, looking towards him. Vlad blinked at the intensity of the teen's icy eyes, the glare quite clear, "I find it really super suspicious, and I don't know if you lied to me when you said this wasn't a trick or a distraction from something your doing or what. It bothers me 'cause I want to enjoy this time, bu I can't stop the little feelings that I'm walking blindly into a trap. You don't _**do**_ nice things for me without wanting something in _return_."

Vlad stared at the teen, shocked. Though, the confrontation did make sense, the more he thought about it. He regained his composure, replying, "Daniel, I assure you, there is nothing going on behind the scenes. You have nothing to worry about."

Danny's eyes narrowed, "So then if your not trying to do something, why are you being so nice-y nice?"

Vlad looked away. He knew Daniel wouldn't drop the topic. The teen wasn't so easily distracted. He felt the knot slowly form in his throat. He couldn't answer it. Not now, not ever.

"...Please, Daniel, believe me, you don't want to know. It would deeply upset you," he said quietly. "It would be best if you let it go."

Danny glared, a paranormal light glowing behind his pupils, "Well that doesn't really soothe my worries. It's really hard for me to try to trust your word when you keep everything hidden, you know. Tell me stuff and maybe I'll trust you every once in a while."

Vlad sighed, "It's not that simple, Daniel...It's...complicated."

The cold glare didn't waver, and it only made his throat constrict tighter. He wanted to tell him, but he knew that he was right in his fears. But Daniel also had a point. Trust wasn't given, it was earned. He sighed through his nose, swallowing through the knot, "I'll tell you on the last day. Is that acceptable?"

"Why? Why are you so reluctant to do something so _simple_ as telling me something?" Danny challenged.

"I know that telling you what you want to know will ruin this week for you if I told you now. I refuse to do that. This way you'll only be angry at me on the last day. I stand by what I said and my promise, there's nothing going on that you need to worry about. Nothing bad is going to happen. You can relax," Vlad said. Danny continued to glare, his jaw working. Finally, he sighed and turned away.

"I still don't trust that."

Vlad shoved his hand into the inside pocket of his suit, pulling out his phone. Danny eyed him, and he handed the device out to him, "Here, want to call your parents? I assure you they're fine, and they'll continue to be. Call them every night if you want."

Danny looked at the phone, his fingers pressing into his arm. Vlad wouldn't offer to do this if he was telling the truth or unless he planned for it. The latter would require more work, and Danny didn't think his compliance or ease of mind would be worth it. The odds were in favor of Vlad being genuine. He jammed his tongue in between two of his teeth and shook his head.

Vlad raised an eyebrow, and he elaborated, "No, I'll hold you to your word about the last day. I hope I don't regret this."

Vlad returned his phone to his pocket. The thinly veiled warning in the teens voice was not lost on him.

-o-oOo-o-

The second night found him returning to the main area after he heard the other two go to bed. Daniel lounged in the air, his arms tucked under his head and his legs crossed at the ankles. Vlad floated over to his side, crossing his legs. The spotted sky winked at him, the side of the moon clipping into view while the rest was hidden by the metal edge of the ceiling. It was cold in the room tonight, most likely due to the fact that he saw Daniel doing things with his ice powers here earlier. The cold was uncomfortable for his own heat core, but he ignored it.

"Hey." Danny said.

Vlad nodded in greeting, "Hello, Daniel."

"D'you know about the bizarre kinds of stars? Hypergiants, black dwarfs, pulsars, magnetars, quarks, stellar black holes, those kinds of things?" Danny asked, not taking his eyes off the universe. Vlad raised his brows.

"I've heard of pulsars before, but not the others, no," he admitted.

Danny nodded, "Magnetars are my favorite. They've got extremely powerful magnetic fields. The magnetic field decays, and powers the release of high-energy electromagnetic radiation stuff, like X-rays and gamma rays," he explained. He waved a hand in front of him in emphasis as he spoke, "Hypergiants are just super big normal stars, like between 62 and 1,500 times the size of the sun. It's crazy to think thank something that large exists."

"With all that size, they're mass must be through the roof." Vlad mused.

Danny nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it is. But not as bad as the stellar black holes, for obvious reasons."

Vlad looked towards him, "What about black dwarfs?"

"They're white dwarfs that no long emit light or heat. So they're kinda just dead stars."

"Stars that just fade away instead of combusting Interesting..." Vlad trailed off, deftly wondering how many of those starts were in the small swatch that was above him.

"Yeah. In terms of star death, everyone likes supernovas, but I prefer gamma ray bursts. They're a lot more violent and terrifying. A true testament to the power of the universe," Danny commented, shrugging. His foot bounced to a rhythm in his head, his long bangs flying away from his forehead like a mohawk.

Vlad hummed, "Those occur when a high mass star collapses, correct?"

Danny turned to him, a look of amusement on his face, "Yeah, that's right. I didn't think you'd know that. I guess I should have, since you pointed out those other constellations last night."

Vlad chuckled, leaning back and shifting his center of gravity, "I picked up some facts about astronomy while in college. There were quite a few enthusiasts in the physics classes who would often share the science building with the rest of the science students."

"Cool!"

"Though they quickly became very begrudging of your parents and myself after we pretty much set a bomb off in that building," he admitted, a little guiltily. Danny's eyes went wide and he shot upright, staring at him.

"You set off a bomb in your college?!" he repeated, dumbstruck.

" _Technically_ it was the small-scale Proto Portal. To this day I still wonder how on earth they roped me into helping with _that_. We were supposed to be cleaning up a burn mark your parents made at the time."

Danny looked away, shaking his head in disbelief. A thought came to his mind as he traced out the constellations with his eyes.

"I'm surprised your talking about your college days," he remarked softly, a little hesitant to voice his thoughts, "I would've thought that you'd try to ignore they existed."

Vlad eyes fell to the floor, "Sometimes, I wish it was that easy to do."

Danny turned his head, looking over Vlad's downcast expression, "...Maybe if its so hard, it's your mind trying to tell you shouldn't try to do it."

Vlad was silent for a while before he nodded, "...Maybe."

-o-oOo-o-

"Do you believe in aliens, Daniel?"

Danny blinked, turning to watch Vlad float over, "Well that's a question out of nowhere."

Vlad shrugged, his hands folded over his waist, "I was just having drifting thoughts, was all."

Danny turned back to stargazing, "Yeah, I do. I kinda have to since, you know, ghosts exist and all. And if ghosts exist, there's absolutely no reason why aliens wouldn't. The Ghost Zone is kinda endless like space too, now that I think about it, and completely different from the normal world. So ghosts are like aliens. I'm half alien, fuck yeah!" A wide smile split his face, which he tried to cover with his fingertips.

Vlad chuckled, "Amusing logic, to say in the least."

"Yeah, but in all seriousness, the probability that we're lone in the universe is hilariously tiny. Like, _nonexistent_ tiny. There's so much stuff out there, so much that can't even be comprehended, and yet we have enough ego to dare to think that we're hot stuff just because we've got life on this tiny little pebble." Danny rambled, waving his had towards the glass, as if the gesture could capture the sheer amount of everything in front of them.

"I've never heard you speak so condescendingly—well, about things that aren't your enemies," Vlad commented, amused.

"People who don't believe in aliens get on my nerves," Danny mumbled, "It's like... **how**."

"Fear. Uncertainty. Spirituality. The desire to remain blissfully ignorant. It's human nature."

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense," he admitted, agreeing. The moons pale face shone down upon them, not really any clearer than on earth. Danny tilted his head, "If I ever become a full ghost, I hope my obsession's with the universe. So I can just go out and explore without a care in the world, to reach what I can't reach now. I want to see Saturn, I want to visit the Curiosity and Spirit rovers on Mars, I want to try to land on Pluto just to see if I can. I want to touch a rouge planet, I want to swim in the oceans hidden under the ice of frozen planets, I want to see a pulsar. Man, that'd be so cool..."

Vlad looked towards Danny, the distant, thoughtful look in the teens eyes unfamiliar to him. He turned the thought of being a wandering in the vastness of pure existence over in his mind. Alone for eternity with nothing but the beauty he was staring at now all around him. He couldn't fathom it. He couldn't fathom just leaving and being out there forever, even if he didn't have any connections to anyone or his previous self. It terrified him, to a certain degree. To be so alone, so lost. Perhaps Daniel was simply more ambitious than him, or perhaps he wasn't so shackled by fear that he would deny himself the experiences. Perhaps death made no difference to him. The notion sent static down his spine and he shivered. He looked up at the stars, trying to ignore the feeling of emptiness he inadvertently associated them with.

"I hope I never come back as a full ghost, to be honest," he said.

Danny's brows furrowed and he rolled his head towards him, "Wait, what? Why?"

Vlad tilted his head, refusing to meet Danny's eyes, "I don't want to be stuck with an eternal existence having forgotten who I was, nothing but a husk of my name. I don't want the scrambled memories, the obsession, the mundane attempts at fulfilling what can never be fulfilled. I've had enough of that, I would be content with just ceasing to exist."

They sat in silence, the words hanging in the air. Danny stared at Vlad, taking note of the hallow cheeks, the dark bags under his eyes, the tired look in his eyes that he knew had nothing to do with lack of sleep. He saw the faint rounded scars from the ecto-acne on his skin, the marks on the tops of his hands from so many IVs and needles. The calloused fingers worked to roughness in desperation, in determination, in pain, in the need for distraction, in forcing ectoplasm and energy to bend to his will over and over and over again. And suddenly, Vlad never seemed so old, so _worn,_ than he had then.

"...You want peace," Danny whispered. It wasn't a question.

Vlad nodded, "Yeah. I do."

-o-oOo-o-

Danny twisted through the large halls of the station, his fingers brushing over equipment and poles alike. He pulled himself into a tunnel he hasn't been down, shifting his gravity to remained balanced, he paused at the entrance of the domed circular room looking around it. Dozens upon dozens of ghost zone plants were held to the wall, their loose leaves and tendrils bobbing casually. A few zone creatures lounged in glass containers, not looking very comfortable but not agitated either. Vlad was sitting crossed legged in the center of the room above a table, precariously holding an eyedropper near a floating blob of jade-hued liquid. A few drops bubbled into the weightlessness of the station, and Vlad nudged them into the blob. The eyedropper was returned to the table, sticking there with magnetism, Danny assumed. Vlad pried a container of silvery liquid off the table, grabbing a syringe. He caught sight of Danny and raised a brow at him.

Danny pulled himself against the wall, "I'm going out for a space flight, I can't resist the temptation anymore."

"I was wondering when you're reach your limit with that," Vlad stated, jabbing the tip of the syringe into the container. He drew out a small amount of the material, carefully trying to stab the blob in front of him that was looking more and more like a giant amoeba to Danny. It kept moving and shying away from the point.

He floated a little closer, "What _are_ you doing?"

"Seeing what Zone flora and fauna might be able to survive up here. I'm getting unexpected results, which surprises me. I assumed that they'd be far less hardy than full blown ghosts," Vlad explained, injecting the silver into the liquid, "It's also incredibly hard to do this kind of science without any gravity—Oh, _chocolate eclair!_ "

Danny snicked and watched Vlad try to nudge all of the split bubbles back together again. Vlad grumbled, and Danny trailed his eyes over the plants on the walls, "Well, ghosts and the flora stuff are from the same place, so they've got a common origin."

Vlad looked at him from under his brows, "That's like saying that a mouse could survive what a human could simply because both are land dwelling mammals."

Danny shrugged, "Hey, I'm failing my classes, remember; its hit or miss with my thinking."

"Quite," Vlad mused, putting his tools down on the table, "Do you care if I join you?"

"Nope. Maybe I'll get lucky and you'll fall back down to earth so I can hijack this place and do loop-de-loops in the shuttle," Danny replied, transforming. His core prickled with energy, the sensation running down his limbs.

Vlad picked up a container, jabbing it at him, "Don't you even _think_ about it. I'd be coming right back up here to kick you if you did anything of the sort. Both this station and the Prizrak are more expensive than you could ever hope to comprehend."

"Hey, I can dream, can't I?"

"Settle for doing loop-de-loops on your own."

Vlad caught his experiment in the cup, snapping the lid closed over the top. Black rings extended around his waist and split, Plasmius replacing Masters. Vlad gestured to the wall, and Danny phased through it. His legs merged into a spectral tail, and he released all of the air in his lungs he could. The extreme pressure of the vacuum hit him full force, the cold oddly refreshing despite the feeling of being sat on by a car. What air he didn't release was sapped from his lungs, his core taking over and using ectoplasm to keep his human side alive while it was dormant. The first thing he did was try to smell the emptiness, and he crinkled his nose at the stench. Space smelled like an inferno overcooking meat and burning metal. He forced his respiratory system inactive, he didn't need to smell that more than once nd there was no air anyway. He felt Vlad beside him, and looking at the look on his face, he also smelled the last frontier and found it distasteful. Danny pushed away from the station, starting a wide circle around it. Vlad trailed after him, though he seemed to unconsciously drift closer to the station than Danny.

Everything was gorgeous. The darkness, the stars, the sun in the distance and the moon so tiny like a little nickle. He could see the faint dots of the planets, the outline of other galaxies all around. He looked up and down and to the left and to the right and behind him and in front of him in every direction he could and each one he found was a brand new sight of sheer endlessness. He could pick a direction and just fly as fast as he could and he'd never, ever need to stop because the universe was nearly endless. And if he did reach the end, he could always push on it and try to see what was beyond it. Transcending existence, answering science's greatest question. Maybe it was the ghost zone beyond where his universe ended. Maybe it was where the ghost's began. The other side of the fabric of reality, or another facet of a multiplaned something that were all sown together at the edges. Or maybe it never really ended and he'd just loop back around to this exact point in space. Maybe it led to all of the other universes, all of the alternate time lines and different lives of everyone that had ever lived. The possibilities were endless, and he found a new thing he wanted to do if he became a full ghost.

"Hey Vlad?" he said, not sure if he'd even be able to be heard.

He looked back towards Vlad, slowing so that he floated by the other's side. Vlad turned towards him, having been staring at the cloudy blue sphere beneath them that looks so huge now but was smaller than a speck of dust in comparison to everything else.

"Hmmm?"

Danny bit his lip, "Do...you ever think about how things would be, if neither of us became halfas?"

Vlad remained quiet for a long time as they continued flying before answering.

"Everything would be different. I would be a lot better off, perhaps not financially, but mentally. Socially. Emotionally. Things would've been better, Things wouldn't have changed," he droned, voice oddly emotionless given the topic, "You and your sister might not have existed, however, if things had gone differently. That's the fickle thing about thinking about 'what if's. Changing even a few of the variables changes everything. The domino effect. It's hard to tell."

Danny nodded, "What did you want to do, before... y'know. _That_?"

Vlad paused again, "...Your parents and I had everything figured out down to the dotted I's and crossed T's. We'd planned to study Parascience together, using our individual talents to make it efficient. I guess I could liken it to your little group. Samantha is knowledgeable about dark and occult subjects. Tucker is talented with his hacking and his devices. You're logical and strong, every bit the leader you've slowly become."

He continued, "It was the same with us. If Jack could design it, he could build it and make it work, no matter how outrageous. Maddie was the one to figure out the limitations, being a physicist at the time. How something could work, how to manipulate the primal processes and the mysteries of matter. I was the mathematician, though I was studying Biochemistry. Science relies heavily on math, math can predict things, can be used to figure out obscure patterns. It was the plan that Maddie would study the Ghost Zone, how it works, while Jack designed things to affect ghosts, to hunt them, so I would have the other half of the things to study: the actual ghosts. It was designed to be a never ending loop of information and feedback, working like a well oiled machine. It clicked together so _**well**_. We wouldn't have needed anyone else working with us when we could figure everything out ourselves."

"It was like the golden dream. I never even considered the possibility that that wasn't how things were going to turn out." Vlad's eyes dulled and he took a deep breath, "Foolish of me, am I right?"

"...You sound like you miss it," Danny commented.

"Everyone misses their missed and stolen opportunities." Vlad said, looking at Danny, "That's what makes the 'what ifs' so painful."

Danny blinked, swearing he saw an odd, forlorn look of pain in Vlad's eyes when he'd looked at him, but it was gone as soon as it came. He looked sadly down towards the world. He sounded so distant. Aloof. But not bitter, like Danny had expected. Just...hurt and somber.

"You could always try to get it back, you know," he suggested, "It's not too late to make amends."

"Yes. It is. It's twenty years too late. Some things can't be forgiven, nor fixed." Vlad shook his head, turning his gaze away from the planet, "No matter how much we want to."

-o-oOo-o-

Vlad was early the last night. He'd honestly thought that Daniel had maybe gone to bed with his friends because the teen wasn't in the middle like normal. But he took his place anyway, sitting cross legged holding onto a pole to keep himself in place. This had become habit, one he was content with. He traced the stars with his eyes, reconsigning the planets that Daniel had pointed out a previous day. He could probably draw the stars from memory by now, he'd seen them so many times over the week. He felt the room coll few degrees, and he heard metal being touched to his side. He turned, watching Danny slowly float to his side. The teen nodded towards him, grinning a little.

"Hey."

He nodded back, "Hello, Danny."

Danny's brows shot up, "That's the first time you've called me Danny. Ever."

"That's because Daniel is much more mature." Vlad reasoned. He'd always preferred the true name to the nickname. The nickname clouded the amount of maturity Danny had, nurtured by his responsibilities to the city.

Danny nodded. He remained silent, staring at the ceiling. It didn't hold his attention for long, and he looked back down at Vlad again, "It's technically the last day. Or close to it," he said.

Vlad stiffened, and kept staring at the sky. The air between them is uncomfortable for him now, the silence awkward.

"Can you tell me now?" Danny tilted his head, waiting.

Vlad ground his teeth, he didn't want to tell him. He inhaled deeply, "You won't take the reason very easily, and you'll hate me forever. Not that that's any different than now, but it'll make it worse. So much worse..."

Danny shook his head, "I don't think so. We've been civil this week, at least. That's gotta count for something, making it at least a little better," he said and Vlad felt a little hope spark to life, "I don't believe that any reason could be that bad."

Vlad remained silent for a moment before speaking again, "...I'll ask you one last time. Do you really, truly want to know?"

"Yeah, I do."

Vlad nodded, "Do you remember when...I tried to clone you?"

"I do..." Danny replied, and he was instantly on guard. He eyed Vlad, wary, "But why are you bringing _that_ up, what does that have to do with this?"

"It's important. While I was...working on all of that, I'd accidentally done something wrong. It wasn't a very large mistake, quit harmless in the grand scheme of things. But it was enough to rip every rug out from under my feet," Vlad said.

Danny's eye narrowed, and he felt uncomfortable with this conversation. He wrapped his arms around himself, his fingers tapping on his hip. Vlad wouldn't meet his gaze.

"I'd accidentally run your DNA data through my database I keep on various ghosts and a few people or worth." Vlad shook his head, chuckling humorlessly, "Funny, how one mistake can change so much."

"I don't understand..." Danny muttered, "What...does this have to do with you being nicer towards me?

"The computer found three other matches, which is not at all uncommon given that that particular program looks for family connections as well."

Danny blinked, staring at Vlad, "...So your computer found my family's DNA when it ran mine. Which means that you had my family in your database. Is that what you think I'd be so upset over? Yeah, that's kinda creepy, but I kinda expect nothing less from you, to be honest."

"No, that's not it," Vlad interrupted,trying to swallow the knot in his throat, "Two of the three results were expected. It was the third that caught me off guard."

"What d'you mean...?"

Vlad inhaled deeply, "The first two were your mother's and your sister's," he paused.

"The third...was **mine**."

Danny stared, and blinked.

"I ran it again, as at the time I was certain it was a mistake. A glitch in the system. But it came back exactly the same—seven times," Vlad explained quickly, never looking towards Danny, "I tore out the entire system twice, replaced the computer entirely when that hadn't worked. I reset all the samples with newer ones. Recoded the program on how it looked for matches. Nothing ever changed."

Vlad finally turned to him, "Do you understand now why I though you would hate me?"

"You're-" Danny's voice cracked and he tried to swallow. The tightness in his throat made it painful, "You're implying that you're my biological father."

The words were monotone. Emotionless. Numb. They slid so easily off Danny's tongue, he just barely registered the sound of his own voice in his ears. In front of him, looking every bit as guilty as he should never, _ever_ be able to look, Vlad nodded. His face forcibly blank. He was trying not to react, to remain impassive. The crease between his brows betrayed his pain. The cloudy, conflicted worry, and dare he say, the tiny spark of hope, in his eyes revealed his fear. The way his fingernails dug into his sleeves, worrying the fabric, revealed his anxiousness.

Danny blinked again. He just felt so _**numb**_.

He shook his head, "Not possible. You probably just didn't find the right source of the mistake."

Vlad slumped, "Danny, the same mistake doesn't happen seven times, three on entirely new computers."

"No, I said it's **not** _ **possible**_." Danny snapped. This wasn't right. This was impossible. This entire trip had been a lie. Vlad lied to him. He snarled, his eyes burning green, "You tried to lull me into a false sense of security with all this, didn't you? You did all of this just to try to meticulously fake building my trust in you up just so you could try to pull this stunt. You did everything you could to trick me. You gave me what I wanted, accepted my terms and conditions, presented me with things you knew I couldn't be able to resist. You played me like a puppet on strings. This is a low blow, even for you."

"Daniel—"

"I don't know what hurts the most, the fact that you'd use my own heart to manipulate me or the fact that you actually lied through your teeth when you promised me I could trust you for this week." Danny continued, sneering as he pulled himself up straight, "I should have fucking known better. I should have known better than to trust you. Are you proud of yourself? Do you feel accomplished at how far you got? How badly were you laughing every time I turned my back to you? I didn't think you could've sunk any lower than your cloning stuff, but you managed to prove me wrong."

"You know, just **yesterday** I _actually_ thought that you were starting to change. That somewhere, you got a wake up call and realized how much of an asshole you've become. It was actually kinda nice, I was going to try to help you get your 'golden dream' back, you want to know why? Because I like to believe that people deserve second chances, even people like _**you.**_ _"_ His fingers curled so tightly into fist his arms began to shake, "But I was wrong. Oh god, I was so damn _wrong_. You've suck to new lows and you will _never,_ _ **ever**_ change. You'll always be a deranged, creepy, miserable fruit loop who won't ever give up poking his fingers into things that he doesn't need to be poking in."

"What the fuck happened to you? Was it the hospital or the ecto-acne that fried any semblance of human morality in your brain? Or was it the Proto Portal blast, maybe such high doses of contaminated ectoenergy rewired your brain? Or was it entirely your own selfish, angry delusions that broke you so bad? Maybe my parents had a good reason cutting you away for twenty years, after all. I felt sorry for you, when you talked about your 'what if's," he spat, "But now I realize that my parents splitting from you was the best decision they ever made, and they don't even know it."

Danny jabbed a finger at Vlad, the wavering green ectoplasm barely contained in his anger, "You deserve _every single_ _ **drop**_ of pain you've ever experienced, and ever will experience. I hope you feel so fucking giddy about leading me on for so long, because that's the last time you'll ever feel that way. I refuse to be used anymore," he hissed, "I'm done playing this game. Start anything with me again, and I will end it permanently. **Your choice.** "

Danny let his hands drop, his chest heaving. The silent in the air was broken only by his breathing. Vlad just stared at him. His face was voice of any emotion besides a little shock. Danny expected it to twist into an angry snarl, for Vlad to scream back at him, to punch him into the wall. That's how it always went. They fought, and they always would. His blood boiled, and he felt his core wait with baited breath. He wanted to fight, he wanted to punch Vlad in the face, to show him exactly what he thought of this horrible, ridiculous plot. He felt the ectoenergy crackle throughout his body. But Vlad just stared, then nodded, turning away.

"I knew this would happen. I knew you'd explode like that. That's why I didn't ever want to tell you. I shouldn't have told you the truth. I should have tried to lie, to use an excuse, anything. I knew, and yet I still took the risk," he responded, his voice void of emotion, "I had thought...that after this week, that maybe I had been wrong, in my assumptions on how you'd react. That maybe you wouldn't blow up. That maybe you wouldn't hate me as much. I allowed myself to hope, a little. I shouldn't have."

Danny snarled, bristling. Vlad seemed to ignore him.

"The time spent with you was nice while it lasted. That will have to be enough for my lifetime," he said quietly, "For what it's worth, _I'm sorry_. I'm sorry for ruining it all, for upsetting you, for everything. Please, excuse me."

Vlad faded from view, and Danny felt his ectosignature jump to a different area; he'd turn tail and run via teleport. Danny glared in the direction Vlad went to, and tore himself from the room. He climbed through the station into the sleeping room Sam and Tucker had retired to earlier. His core was over energized from his emotions, and he was far too angry to sleep, but he needed to try to rest anyway. He needed to calm himself. He floated past his friends, slipping into his own weird little space bed. He tried to restrain his ice core, for their comfort. He huddled inside the soft fabric, uncaring of the straps that held him in place, and he tucked his head down.

He felt fingers tap his arm, "Danny?"

"Huh?" He jumped, turning towards his friends. Sam looked back at him, her face painted with worry. He swallowed, "I thought you guys were sleeping. Sorry if I woke you."

Sam and tucker shared a look, "Are you okay, Danny?" Tucker asked hesitantly.

Sam nodded, "We...heard everything."

Danny clenched his teeth, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Do you, you know, need to talk or anything?" Sam tilted her head, laying her hand on his arm.

"Yeah, we're here if you need to get anything off your chest, we're here for you."

Danny shook his head, "I'm okay, really. Just tired. Sorry for bothering you when you were trying to sleep."

He snuggled back up in his bag, and tried to force himself to go to sleep. He felt his friends stare at him for a moment. The feeling of theirs eyes disappeared and he slowly forced the tension from his body and tried to forget about everything that happened this week. Behind him, the two looked at each other, exchanging silent, worried glances.

The fact that they did not hear Vlad protest to the verbal beating Danny gave him was not lost on them.

-o-oOo-o-

Maddie heard the door close, heavy bags falling to the floor. She flicked the water off her fingers, yanking a paper towel to dry her hands. She walked into the living room, smiling at Danny. He was kneeling, looking through his bags for something. He pulled the zipper of the main compartment closed, moving to side pocket and shoving his hand into it.

"Hey, sweetie, welcome home! How was the trip?" she asked.

"Fine," he replied bluntly. Her smile fell at his frown. he continued digging through his bags like she wasn't even there.

She stopped, and a bad feeling settled into her gut, "Oh no, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Yeah, _Vlad's_ what fuckin' happened. I never want to see him again, I never want him to step foot within _twenty feet_ of this house, I _never_ want to hear his _**name**_ ever again," Danny sneered. He stood and turned towards her, gesturing wildly with his hands, "He's a prick. An asshole. A manipulative little lying snake of a bastard. I don't _care_ how much dad likes him or how he still thinks they're friends when they're very clearly **not** , I _can't_ _ **stand**_ him. I refuse to deal with him ever again. He's not welcome in any of our lives anymore, not that he was in the first place."

"Danny, I don't understand..." She stepped up to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. A thought cut it's way into her brain and her eyes widened, "Did he hurt you?"

He snorted, "He lied to me and tricked me, enough said."

She nodded, her face falling as she relented. It hurt her to no end that he didn't seem to have enjoyed himself, and endless questions bombarded her mind. But as she looked Danny over, she knew that he was in no mood to play twenty questions.

She gave him a small, sad smile, "Okay...go try to calm down, you're home now. Dinner's gonna be ready in about an hour."

He muttered his thanks and pulled away, climbing up the stairs. She looked after him, a terrible sense of de ja vu overcoming her from the memory of him coming home upset about the contest to begin with. His door clicked shut, and she sighed. She placed her hand over her mouth and wondered what Danny meant. Her wondering eyes fall onto the phone on the coffee table and she walked over to it. She picked up the receiver, her fingers hovering over the numbers. She bit her lip, hesitating. The lab door thunked onto the door stopper, and she looked into the kitchen. Jack washed his hands in the sink and she put the phone back.

He turned to her when she walked back into the kitchen, "You okay?"

"Yeah, Danny's home. He's in a bad mood," she replied, returning to the sauce she was mixing up. Jack waved a hand in the air, shrugging.

"He's probably upset he had to leave. You know he'd probably live up in space if he could." The joking remark would normally make her chuckle, but this time it didn't really make her feel any better.

-o-oOo-o-

Weeks passed, yet still Danny remained irritable. Maddie noticed, and tried to get him to tell her more about what went on up in the station, but he said nothing. Jack just thought he needed some space and that it would pass eventually. Jazz thought differently. She saw how strained his time with his friends was. Sure, they hung out like normal and generally behaved the same, but there were times when a wedge seemed to be between Danny and the other two. A wedge that Jazz couldn't explain. She noticed that he was working more on his homework than other things recently. Distracting behavior at its finest. She was worried for him, worried that he was bottling things inside. She tried to be an available outlet for him, but he didn't come to her yet.

Her eyes strayed from the print on the page as she heard the back door slam. She wet her lips, staring at the bottom corner of her book. Normally light steps stomped across the tile, bottles and cartons jolting noisily as the door of the fridge was yanked open. She nibbled on a lose piece of skin on her top lip before she quietly closed her book. She unfolded her legs and got up, peeking through the window into the kitchen. Danny stood on his tiptoes, trying to reach the top shelf of the cabinet. She went to his side, reaching and grabbing the box he was fingering with ease. He muttered his thanks and accepted the box as she held it out to him. If he wouldn't come to her, she'd go to him.

"Hey Danny?" she called when he began to walk away.

His shoulders slumped, "Jazz, I really don't want to be psychoanalyzed right now."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and squeezed them, "I was just going to ask if you're okay. You've been really irritable ever since you came back. Did anything happen up there?"

"He _lied_ , Jazz. I really should've expected it, honestly, but he played me like a fiddle for an entire week before he tried to pull a stunt when he'd promised he wouldn't. I forgot that promises mean nothing when you're _Vlad_ fuckin _' Masters,_ " Danny hissed, his fingers curling into the cardboard of the box.

"What did he do?"

"He used my heart against me. Everything he did was to put me into a false sense of security, to get me to trust him, all according to his plan. He used my love of space to get close to me. Every day, after Sam and Tuck went to sleep, I'd sit in the main area of the station, okay? It had a huge glass ceiling so you could see so many stars and things. It became habit for him to join and we'd talk. At first it was okay, being civil was a breath of fresh air and I actually thought that he was keeping true to his promise. I began to think that maybe he was changing and maybe he deserved a second chance." Danny paused, turning and looking up at his sister, "But then the final night came around. And he told me why he was being so nice. He said that he'd _apparently_ ' _ **accidentally**_ ' ran my DNA that he had against his database and the results came back with you, mom, and **him**. He seriously tried to tell me, _to my actual face_ , that dad wasn't my dad. It was stupid, it was pathetic. He seriously expected me to buy it too. I honestly can't fathom how delusional he's become."

She frowned, a crease forming on her forehead, "He admitted it was a ploy after you called him out on it?"

Danny scoffed, "Hell no, you expect too much from him. He kept with the attempt, it was ridiculous. He said, 'The time spent with you was nice and it will have to be enough for a lifetime.' or something like that when he bailed. I'm so upset with him, it's not even funny."

"That doesn't sound like something someone would say if they were trying to take advantage of you in some way, though," she remarked, her frown deepening. Danny gave her a look.

"Vlad's an ace actor, Jazz, he fakes stuff all the time," he deflected, "but no amount of acting can hide the fact that he's a prick."

He walked away from her, and she stared after his back, "Is there any chance he wasn't doing what you think he was?"

He paused and gave her a disbelieving look, "You actually think that mom would cheat on dad with a creep like Vlad?!"

"I think that time changes people," Jazz replied. "They were all friends in college, there had to be a reason why. It's possible that Vlad wasn't like he is now back then, and it took a lot of time for Vlad to fall so far. There are a lot of things that can kill someone's psyche, that can break them, Danny."

"I don't care, I just want him to stay the hell away from me," Danny snapped, continuing into the living room, "If he ever steps foot in this house again, I'm going to send him on a vacation in the Ghost Zone—In a thermos with the cap super glued on."

-o-oOo-o-

Low thunks and the sound of heavy things being slid across the floor down the stairs of the lab. Jazz paused at the top, fidgeting with her fingers as she watched the shadows on the steel floor. She didn't really want to do this, but she didn't really have a choice. Her conversation with Danny earlier in the evening felt weird and she couldn't stop thinking about it. Everything she knew about psychology pointed to Danny's behavior being defensive, which wasn't all that unusual if he thought that Vlad was making attacks on him. But even for Vlad, the possibility of this being all a trick was just too far-fetched. It wasn't logical. And that wasn't even touching what Danny said Vlad said.

She took a deep breath and held her head up, steeling her resolve. She trudged down the stairs, looking around the lab. Her mother was reorganizing some of the storage, pieces or weapons and wires scatter over the tables. Her father was out to Elmerton to pick up some supplies that were far too expensive to ship. Maddie was presently trapped in a small circle, surrounded by the boxes she was resorting.

Jazz knocked on the wall of the lab. Maddie spun around, her gaze landing on her daughter, "Oh, hi Jazz." She wave a bent piece of metal around at the boxes, "Sorry for the mess, doesn't feel like I'm making any progress with this."

Jazz nodded, looking around the room, "Hey, mom, can I talk to you? About Danny?"

Maddie paused. She gave a small sad smile, placing the odds and ends she was holding into a box at her feet, "I wish I knew what happened up there to make him so angry. I just don't know what to do, I wish he'd talk to me."

"That's what I anted to talk to you about, actually. Danny talked to me." Jazz gave a long sigh through her nose.

Maddied looked up at her, opened her mouth bu Jazz continued, "Now, don't get me wrong, I feel _really_ horrible about going behind his back with this, but I really feel like this isn't something he should be keeping quiet about. Danny's secrets are his own. But his needs to be resolved, and I don't know what else to do."

Maddie frowned, "What'd he tell you?"

Jazz bit her lip, picking at her fingernails, "Danny...said that Vlad tried to tell him that he's his biological father. Danny thinks he was doing it to be malicious, and that's why he's angry at Vlad, but...I'm not so sure." Jazz paused, watching her mother raise her hand to cover her mouth, "Mom, is it...possible that Vlad was telling the truth?"

Maddie slowly sat down on a box, her eyes wide. Jazz watched her, the toe of her shoe bouncing in the floor.

"I...I don't know," Maddie admitted, shaking her head, "I never even thought about that before..."

"Thinking back, Danny was incredibly small when he was born, but I just thought that that was how he was. But...if he was conceived latter than I thought, that would have made him early..." she thought aloud, her hands dropping to her knees, "I stayed with Vlad twice, after we hadn't heard from him since college...I never thought of it being a possibility, it hadn't even crossed my mind, I was so certain..."

She trailed off, then looked back up at Jazz, "Yes, it's entirely possible."

Maddie stood and stepped over the boxes between them. Jazz held out her hand, which Maddie took to help stay balanced. She walked over to one of the tables, leaning over to shuffle through some of the papers left on it.

Jazz fallowed nervously, "What are you going to do?"

"I want to know the truth." Maddie admitted, shrugging "Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't stop. I know that probably seems childish, but I'm a scientist. I need the answer."

"So you're going to do a DNA test? I don't think Danny will be too happy to participate, you accepting that it's a possibility might rattle his mental stability. He's dead-set on believing what he wants, and he might see his family trying to break that down as an attack and withdraw more," Jazz warned, biting her nail.

"That's why I'm not going to tell him I'm doing it," Maddie said, "Danny can believe what he wants, I just want the truth."

"Are you going to tell dad?" Jazz called after her. She paused, thinking.

"That depends on the result. If Vlad was wrong, there's no reason to tell him about the drama. But if Vlad was right...He has a right to know. I don't keep secrets from Jack, not important ones. Did Danny say how Vlad found out?"

"He didn't."

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to try to figure that out myself."

"Just promise me you won't pry too much, mom? Danny needs his space just as much as he needs help through this."

-o-oOo-o-

"Hey." Jazz smiled at her mom. Maddie gave a small smile back, then returned to looking at the papers in her hand. "Is that what I think it is?"

Maddie nodded, "It is."

Jazz turned back tot he coffee pot, pouring herself a cup of tea, "What does it say."

"Vlad was right. Danny and Jack have no matching DNA points," Maddie said simply. Jazz paused in her movements, but nodded and continued, silent. It didn't surprise her, not after what Danny told her. Maddie looked towards her daughter, "Is Danny still awake?"

"I don't know, I haven't really seen him at all today. He's been up in his room," Jazz admitted, shrugging as she sipped her tea, "But I did talk with Sam and Tucker about it earlier this morning, when I found them in the hall without Danny around. It didn't really take anything to make them talk about what happens."

Maddie frowned, "They knew?"

"They heard," Jazz corrected. "They'd gone to bed early, but couldn't sleep. After a while, they heard Vlad and Danny chat. When Vlad got done speaking, Danny was really quiet and then he just, in their own words, 'started ripping Vlad apart' verbally. Like, they said that Danny was being so brutal and nasty when he was tearing Vlad down. Making personal jabs and whatnot."

Jazz looked at the tiled floor sadly, "They didn't say any specifics, I think they were afraid that I'd scold Danny if they told me any more details."

Maddie rubbed her face with her hands, sighing. She held her hands in front of her mouth, her eyes trailing over the pictures on the fridge.

"I knew that Danny didn't like Vlad before, but I didn't know it was bad enough for him to act like that..." she said softly. Jazz nodded, staring into her tea. Maddie inhaled deeply and pushed herself out of the chair, the results in her hand, "Well, wish me luck."

Jazz muttered good wishes after her as she left the room. Maddie didn't think that the time it took to climb the stairs had ever taken so long before for her. She knew the reasons why, that her perception of time was muddled because her mind was confused and conflicted, that what she knew to be her world was being shaken and she didn't know how to confront it. It was easy for her to explain her experiences away with science. But what didn't make sense was Danny, and Vlad. The hostility didn't make sense, and not just from Danny's side. Vlad's overly hurtful behavior towards Jack didn't make sense to her. She knew that Vlad had always been upset and angry because of the accident. But twenty years later, over eighty five billion dollars and eight highly successful companies later, the animosity would have lessened. But it didn't seem to. What confused her was why, if Vlad never forgave them, would he invite them to the reunion? To keep appearances? That didn't sit right with her.

And then there was the frequency in which Vlad began to want to see Danny. Was that when he found out? Maddie's heart tightened, was he trying to drive a wedge between Danny and Jack? The theory fit with Vlad's past behavior and Vlad's opinions towards Jack. If Vlad hated Jack that much, there wasn't any doubt he'd try to cut Danny off from him and vice versa. To try to take Jack's place, because he thought he was owed it. But Danny had made it clear even before Vlad's change in behavior that he didn't like the man, and that disdain was at an all-time high now. Vlad had pretty much destroyed his chances with Danny, and Maddie didn't know how Vlad would react to that. She knew from experience Vlad held grudges, and threw tantrums. Would he go so far as to try to just take Danny? From her too?Legally, she stood no chance against him. In nearly every way, in the eyes of a court,Vlad would be the better home for Danny. He had more money, most stability, it was safer, he had more resources...and that was all without the fact that he was charismatic and well known. The only thing he wouldn't have was Danny's agreement, which he didn't need.

She froze at the top of the stairs, staring at her feet. If Vlad wanted Danny, there was absolutely nothing stopping him from just taking him. Her heart hurt at the thought.

She pushed her thoughts out of her mind. She needed to wait until she had all the pieces to the puzzle, or at least more than she already had, to begin trying to put the puzzle together. She stepped up to Danny's door, rapping her knuckles on the door.

"Danny? Danny, sweetie, can I come in?" Maddie called, pressing her ear to the door. A muffled 'sure' floated through the door and she quietly stepped into the room.

It was immaculate, for the first time ever. Dirty clothes were in the basket and not the floor, the closet was closed without a mountain of things poking out of it, his desk neat and organized. All of his schoolwork was set out on his dresser, homework laying on the given subjects textbook. She'd actually forgotten that he had a rug in his room, it'd been buried for so long. Danny himself was laying on top of the covers, his arms under his pillow and his face shoved into it. She stepped over to his bed, slowly sitting down on the edge. If he protested the movement, he didn't say.

"Danny, I have something I'd like to ask, but I'm going to ask that you please not get angry at Jazz. She told me what you told her. About Vlad," she began, trying to be as gentle as she could. If what Sam and Tuck had heard was true, then she hadn't any idea how he'd react. She didn't want him angry a his sister, Jazz was just trying to help him, after all.

"I kinda expected her to do that, to be honest." Danny just shrugged, and shifted, turning his face towards her, "What did you want to know?"

Maddie blinked, surprised. She hadn't expected him to be so nonchalant, but she wasn't going to complain. She tucked her hair behind her ear, "I'd like to know how Vlad figured it out."

Danny went quiet, looking away from her. She bit her lip, worried that she might have pushed her luck but asking about that first. But she needed to know, she couldn't think of any way Vlad would have just stumbled across that kind of information.

"Did you know he's tried to kill dad before?" he said, looking back at her.

Her blood ran cold and she stared at him, "W-what?"

Danny shrugged, "Lots of times. At the reunion, when he pulled that science symposium plot, when all those ghost hunters come to try to get the bounty on Phantom's head, during the Ghost King's invasion. Vlad's angry at dad for causing the accident and for 'stealing' you, if you remember from the chalet. That entire thing was Vlad's fault, by the way, DALV is Vlad backwards."

Her heart sunk lower and lower with each word, and he felt like her stomach was too. How had she miss that?

Danny looked her right in the eye, and said, "The Proto-Portal accident made him half ghost too. Remember the Wisconsin Ghost?"

"Y-yes?" She felt like she could barely breathe.

Danny nodded, "That's Vlad's ghost half, he calls himself Plasmius. Vlad's a liar, a cheater, and thief. He's robbed banks using his ghost powers to get so much money. He's overshadowed people and made them just give him their companies. He has ghost minions to help carry out his dirty work. He's also about ten hundred times more creepy than you know, since he's obsessed with trying to make you love him and he's willing to do anything to make that happen. He tried to make me disown dad one of the first times we'd met, and he's been trying to make me his 'son' ever since. That's why only you and I were invited on his Colorado mountain adventure, while dad and Jazz stayed here; so his animal experiments could murder them. Remember when I said that he was my arch enemy before correcting myself? He's my arch enemy. Those animals that were chasing me were his creations, by the way. He'd kidnapped me in the middle of the night just so we could have a five minute spat and he could sic wild animals on me."

"The Ghost King incident was also all his fault. He stole the ring that the King wanted back. He used me and Valerie as pawns in order to get the crown too. He tripped dad behind your back in the lab once. He was the one who stole the Ecto-Suit, and he probably stole other things while he was here too. Also, when Jazz 'ran away' to him, she was going to try to get information from him. She knows who he is. She was trying to prove me wrong when I called her a bother when she poked her nose into our conflicts. He made us fight, because he wanted to 'test her loyalty' to him." Danny explained.

"Oh, and then there was the time with the Ecto-Acne! There wasn't an outbreak, Vlad infected my friends to give me incentive. Basically, he forced me to help his sorry ass. Because, you know, actually _asking_ for help is beneath Vlad Master's pride. He could have killed them, he had no reason to think that any of us would've figured out the cure." The absolute hate in Danny's voice was astounding, she'd never heard him talk so vehemently.

"You'd thin that was the worst thing he'd ever done, right?" Danny actually sneered in disgust, a snide, hissing edge to his voice, "But it's not. He tried to clone me. _**Clone**_ _ **me**_. Using ectoplasm, he tried to make a perfect clone of me so then he could dispose of the real me and have what he wanted. That's all you really need to know about Vlad, he'll do anything to get what he wants and if you stand in his way, he has no qualms blowing you out of it. Anyway, there were five clones, and three of them were horrible disfigured. They all melted. I feel like that technically counts as murder. So Vlad's a murderer. He needed some part of my DNA to finish his perfect clone. He didn't get it. He said that when he was working with what DNA he had from me, he accidentally ran it through his database and the results were you, Jazz and him. I don't buy it, but whatever. That's how he 'found out'."

"So there you go, that's all you need to know about Vlad. I figured it was about time that you know, since he's prolly concocting another plot as I speak. He doesn't know when to stop. Hell, he doesn't even know the definition of no," he finished and she was left reeling from absolutely everything he'd just said. If her world was shifting before, now it was upside down and the polar negative of what it had been. She looked at him, her mouth agape and he tilted his head at her.

"Did you have any other questions?" he asked. Completely normal. As it everything he just explained was no big deal, perfectly mundane and as common information as snow being cold.

"N-no, I didn't." She shook her head, closing her mouth. She swallowed, still trying to absorb everything, "Thank you, for telling me all of that. I...didn't know."

Danny shrugged, the nodded to her hand, "What's that?"

She jumped and looked at the paper. She'd forgotten she had it. She stared at it in horror and moved it away from him. There was absolutely no way she could actually tell him Vlad was right, not after all that. She gave him a small smile.

"Oh? Oh, that's just a bill. I was getting some checking account information from my bedroom when I wanted to check in on you, see if you were okay," she replied, and she hated how easily the lie fell off her tongue. She always scolded him for lying and keeping his secrets, yet here she was. Was it the same situation? She didn't know. She trailed her fingers through some of his hair, "You are okay, right?"

He smiled back at her, nodding, "Yeah, I'm fine. I feel better now, actually, now that I'm not the only one who knows what a huge crazy Vlad is."

"That's good..." she said, pushing off the bed, "I'm going to go back downstairs, you get some rest. If you need anything, though, don't hesitate to give me a call."

"Alright. Thanks, a lot," he called as she moved tot he door. She was just about to pull the door shut when he called, "Hey, mom?"

She turned, "Hmmm?"

"I love you, and I really appreciate it when your concerned for me, even if I might now show it," he admitted, flashing a smile at her again, "I'm also glad you hate Vlad too."

All she could do was nod in response, because there wasn't any way she could explain how wrong that felt.

-o-oOo-o-

She fell into the chair in the lab, leaning against its back. She knew she should be horrified. She should be angry, and hate Vlad with all her soul. But it felt like the cogs of her brain had been jammed with a stick, and she couldn't make heads of tails anything. Her questions were answered, but in their place grew new ones. Vlad had tried to kill Jack. _Actually_ kill. In some twisted kind of way, it made sense. Vlad was robbed of half his life and several years of his youth. But to try something so drastic, to still be so **angry**...

And then there was the matter than Vlad was apparently obsessed with her. She'd had her assumption, given his actions at the reunion which were then confirmed in the chalet. But to actually try to kidnap her? To trick her, to try to ruin her life? She remembered the moments of the portal accident like the back of her hand, she'd never been able to figure out what happened until Danny explained the anomalies—she didn't know how he did that, it didn't make sense that he'd know that—and she'd replayed those moments for hours. She'd always wondered what he'd wanted to tell her, what he never got the chance to say. Her chest constricted; she knew now. She'd bet her entire career that he was going to try to tell her how he had felt. And she'd told him to wait.

It took only thirteen seconds for him to loose everything he'd ever cared for.

She'd never really thought of it before. Didn't have any need to. He didn't have anyone else before her and Jack, he'd disowned himself from his family for reasons that she was never able to pry from Vlad or Jack. The former said 'it doesn't matter', the latter 'you don't want to know.'. They'd always been together, from the moment they all clicked liked the gears of a clock. And then he was alone, for _twenty years_. Alone and angry, heartbroken and betrayed. He chose murder over forgiveness because he wanted to make them hurt just as much as he had, he wanted to quell his own pain. But something changed for him, she realized. Danny had said that he'd been trying to get Danny to his side before the biological connection was even bright to light. _**Why**_? Did Vlad feel drawn to Danny, an unexplainable connection? Or did he simply just wish to tear away what Jack cared about, like how he thought Jack had taken her? Or were there other reasons Danny wasn't telling her? He had no doubt he was telling half truths. It didn't make any sense to her. And then there was the entire deal with the cloning. Was Vlad _that_ desperate to have something? And why ectoplasm? Ectoplasm couldn't replicate human physiology, and it especially couldn't bind to DNA it would be too unstable. Or would it? If Vlad really was half ghost, he was proof that the two things could coexist in the same being. How? Was Vlad trying to make a clone of Danny that was more like him? Another half ghost? The thought alone was terrifying, if Vlad ever actually managed to **do** it.

It didn't make any sense. Nothing did. The fact that Vlad was willing to stoop to horrible lows when he thought Danny was Jack's son, but done nothing yet when he actually had a greater motive. Nothing except build a space station just to be able to take Danny to space, because Danny was _upset_. Was it suddenly not at all okay in his mind to do things like cloning to get what he wanted just because Danny was actually _his_ child? What's more, she'd heard nor seen hide or hair of Vlad since Danny came home. He didn't come over, didn't call, hasn't sent over custody requests, absolutely nothing.

 _It didn't make any **sense**. _

She knew should should be disgusted with him. That he's done horrible things that can't ever be forgiven. He was broken, in ways that couldn't be fixed, in ways no one could ever know. But she couldn't be. He used to be one of her best friends, and no matter how mean, how creepy, how _terrible_ he would become, she would care about him. Always. She remembered who he was, who they all used to be. Inseparable, bound at the hip and so in tune that they could finish each others lines of thought. Those things were impossible for her to forget.

She refused to stop believing that her friend was still in there. Perhaps he was buried and twisted and damaged. Corrupt and blinded by the anger and pain. But he _had_ to be _**there**_.

She'd promised, as he'd been taken away by the paramedics after his accident, that she'd figure out what what was wrong with him and that they'd fix it.

It was time for her to keep that promise.

Her fingers hooked under the receiver of the phone and she held it to her ear. She dialed his number, her fingers crossed as it rung. Once. Twice. Three times. It clicked, and she heard a distant sigh from the other end.

"Hello, Vladimir Master's residency, this is him. I apologize but I can't help you at the moment, and if you are attempting to sell anything, I don't want it," he spoke, and Maddie knew it was a practiced response. What caught her off guard was the slur in his normally sharp, precise voice.

"Vlad, are you _drunk?_ " she questioned before she could stop herself, her mouth hanging open. He was silent for a moment.

"...Not drunk enough," he answered dully, "Is there something you needed, Maddie?"

She was unnerved. She didn't recall Vlad ever drinking, but even if he had, certainly never enough for it to actually affect him. Vlad was one to always keep his head on his shoulders, to be in control of his body. She closed her mouth, forcing her composure back into place, "Vlad, Danny told me everything."

He was silent again, save for the soft sharp intake of breath. She waited patiently, and he eventually spoke again, "I'm sorry. I had a glitch in my computer system. You have nothing to worry about, I was wrong. Jack's Danny's father, and I apologize—"

"No he isn't, and you know it," she interrupted, a crease forming between her brows, "Why are you trying to play it off like that?"

"It hurts less that way."

Her shoulders slumped, "Vlad..."

"Y'know...it's funny, at least a little bit," he slurred, and she heard him shift, "I got a little taste of heaven, while I was up in that station. It was the best moment in my life. But then I ruined it, like I ruin everything. I thought...I thought that I could deal with what I got, that I could be content with it. I haven't been able to. Because, now, now that I _know_ what I'm missing, what I can't have, it hurts worse than not knowing and not having it. It hurts so much more _**worse**_. I think, I think that what they say is true, 'They don't just send you to hell, they give you a tour of heaven first'. I'm certainly feeling like I've been dropped into hell."

Maddie felt her heart tighten as he spoke. The way he tried to sound like he was fine but the hurt still managed to slip into his words. She knew Jazz's theory was correct now, and she knew what happened. Vlad was being genuine, and Danny thought it had all been a ploy to hurt him like everything else Vlad had done. That's what he'd meant when he'd said Vlad had lied and tricked him. The knowledge burned her very heart, made so much worse by one of the things she knew would never change about Vlad, no matter what would happen: he'd always wanted a family.

She opened her mouth, but didn't know how to respond. What do you say after something like that? she didn't know. She swallowed instead, and changed topics.

"Why didn't you ever tell us that your accident gave you ghost powers?" she asked, nearly whispering even though there was no one else around to hear.

"Oh...oh." She heard his vice harden instantly, a sobriety returning to it in the form of heavily veiled alarm. When he spoke again, it was a breath of a whisper, more or a statement for himself than something directed at her, "Daniel told you **everything**..."

She heard the realization, and stumbled over her words to try to get him to listen to her, "Vlad, it's okay, please, I'm not angry, I just—"

 _ **Click.**_ The line erupted into an obnoxious loud beep.

She pulled the receiver from her ear, staring at it disbelievingly. He'd hung up on her. She reached out and slammed the button on the holder, her fingers redialing his number. The beep stopped, pausing for a quiet moment before it rang again. Once. Twice. Thrice. The line went dead again. She stared at the phone, a creeping feeling of fear sliding over her. She didn't know what Vlad would do. What he _could_ do. She swallowed, replacing the receive with sluggish movements, her mind running a mile a minute.

"Oh, what on earth am I going to do..."

-o-oOo-o-

AN: Well this was a trip, writing this. This was originally for the theme of "Stories", but it drifted away from it and I didn't get it done in time for it to be that. So it became the thing for the free day, the last huzzah before Phanniemay ends! This was a wonderful adventure and I had so much fun! I can't wait for next year!

Oh, hey, look, one of my favorite headcanons ever. I strongly support it, even thought there's very little canon evidence. I just like the concept. As well, Danny turned out super angsty, and I really didn't try that. Hopefully that'll be fixed in the second chapter. The... _second_... _ **chapter**_ -begins sobbing uncontrollably bc this thing was 38 pages long and the second parts prolly gonna be longer-


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